A mother in Florida is thought to have killed her son to “exercise demons out of the child’s body,” according to a sheriff in what he described as a particularly upsetting case for law enforcement.
Rhonda Paulynice, 41, has been charged with second-degree murder, failure to report a death, and altering a dead body, St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard Del Toro announced at a news conference on Friday.
Ra’myl Pierre, 6, was discovered on May 30, but it is believed he died on May 18.
A school resource officer at Samuel Gaines Academy reportedly received a tip on May 30 that a student, Pierre, had not attended class since May 14. A deputy then drove to his known address on the 2500 block of Bedford Drive in Fort Pierce shortly after 10 a.m.
According to Del Toro, Paulynice was in the driveway and guided the deputy inside the house. The deputy discovered the child dead “lying on his bed” at this location. Detectives responded quickly. As of Friday, the cause of death was unknown. An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday.
Detectives discovered that the mother last spoke with her son on May 18, the day she is believed to have killed him.
“What we did learn in speaking with the mother is she believed she was being told by God to basically exercise demons out of the child’s body,” according to Del Toro. “And when the child had stopped moving and basically passed away, at that point, she felt the child had been released of those demons and was waiting for him to basically come back at that time.”
The interview process has continued to be revealing.
“I have not spoken to the mother personally. What we do know is that she experienced many highs and lows during the investigation, ranging from laughing at various points at the scene to crying,” the sheriff added. “So, like I said, a lot of different, lot of different ends of the spectrum.”
Del Toro also revealed that his deputies had previously visited the same address, as recently as May 17, the day before Pierre is thought to have died, due to a “medical issue” Paulynice was experiencing, but never for the child.
“There have been some domestic issues in the past, all the way back to January, involving the mother and a sister who once lived at the home, but nothing involving the child that will lead us to where we’re at today,” the attorney said.
“I’m devastated, I’m sick to my stomach,” a neighbor, Theresa Sienkiewicz, reportedly told West Palm Beach CBS affiliate WPEC.
Del Toro took a moment to recognize Pierre as a human being and expressed his condolences to everyone in his life.
“From what I understand, this kid just lit the room up and was just loved by everybody, and so they’re all going to be having a very difficult time getting through this,” he told me. “But you know, this is the first, the first steps we got to take to make sure … justice gets done in this case, and then we can heal from there.”
The sheriff acknowledged the challenges of responding to and investigating cases involving “someone being purely evil.”
“Our deputies see things that nobody should have to see, and this is one of the struggles we deal with in law enforcement, where we’re expected to get everything perfect all the time,” he told the crowd. “We get exposed to a great deal of trauma in this job, and that trauma can have lasting effects on you.”
“Being a parent, being out on a scene like that, seeing a six year old child that was killed for no other reasons other than just someone being purely evil, and it’s hard, it’s hard to just go home and act like nothing’s happened and sit down for dinner with your spouse and your children,” he continued. “So my heart goes out and my thankfulness and gratitude goes out to the deputies and the detectives that responded out there today.”
